Full Sail degree

[hetsscaryguy]

hi I am just after finishing secondary school and am going to college to study computer csience but what I really want is to be a lighting technician. I have found what seems to be a very good course in the United States at a college called full sail. I just want to know people opinions of the course if you have heard of it or if you havent maybe take a look and tell me what you think. the website is www.fullsail.com . the course is not cheap €40000 to be exact so I need to know if its highly regarded in the industry or not before commiting my next 4/5 years working constantly to pay for it.. I was also thinking about the possibility of starting myself off. I know a lot of bands in my area and was thinking of maybe buying some gear and offering them my services. my main problem is that I dont understand how to set up the rig exactly. I have a fair idea, I worked on a school play once as assistant to the lighting tech but it was 2 years ago and I cant picture the entire rig well enough to do it myself. I know I need to get lights, then plug them into the dimmers (or do I) then send a cable to the control board but I looked at dimmers and cant see any plugs on some of them so to put it mildly im a little confused. can someone tell me exactly what must be done. start at the light fixture and work the signal line back to the board.

 

 

oh by the way the course in full sail is show and tour production

[Tomo]

Before even considering signing up for a course in theatre, try to get some experience at local amateur and semi-pro theatres.

Many places won't accept you on any courses unless you've shown that kind of enthusiasm anyway.

 

It sounds like you are about the right age for work experience - see what contacts your school/college has, and try to get a few short work experience contracts.

 

At least that way you'll find out if you really do want to become a lighting technician.

It's not very well paid, the work is hard, the hours are long, and so the only way you'll stick it is if you really enjoy doing it.

 

"Fame and fortune" don't really exist in this business, so if you are after either, forget it.

[gareth]

With the greatest of respect, it sounds like your best bet would be a course which started right from the very basics (e.g. "what is a dimmer and why do I need one", etc. etc.). If you haven't already committed to your computer science course, you could take a look at one of the number of BTEC courses in performance technology or such-like. There's quite a lot of that kind of thing on offer in various F.E. colleges throughout the country. Some of the more popular courses are listed in our Training & Qualifications FAQ, but there's a very good chance that, wherever you live, you'll find a college close to you that offers a course that will suit.

 

With regard to the Full Sail course, all I know about it is what I've read on the rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft newsgroup - and some of that has been less than complimentary. I know there are people who are regular on that group who have experience of that college - if you post there I'm sure you'll get some useful feedback.

 

In the meantime, if you have any amateur theatres near to you, why not go and volunteer your time? It's a great way to get to know lighting equipment and have the opportunity to experiment with it to find out what it can and can't do, without being constrained by the pressures of a professional venue. Another alternative would be to look at casual work (or a work experience placement) at a local pro theatre. Tell us whereabout you are and we may be able to point you towards some likely places.

 

Good luck.

[boac]

I don't know anything about Full Sail other than a quick glance at their website, but E40,000 does seem like one large bucket load of cash for a 13 month course. (Poxy keyboard doesn't have a euro symbol). That's over £2000 a month!

 

How interested are you in your computer science course? If it is something you do want to do - rather than just something you signed up for as something to do next/safe career move - then I suggest you go ahead and do it and spend as much of your free time as possible getting involved in lighting, be it with amateur groups, local theatre casual work, part time work with rental houses and production companies. It sounds like you don't have much experience in lighting and you can learn a lot in this way, getting in on the bottom rung and mucking in. You'll get a better idea of what it means to work in the industry and whether it is for you. With a bit of luck they'll even be paying you (a bit) rather than the other way round! The other advantage to this is that you can meet people and if there's one thing I've learnt about this game it's the importance of contacts. By far the majority of work I have had I got through someone I know. Also there are plenty of short and part-time courses in lighting, rigging etc that you can go on during holidays. If it all goes wrong and you decide you don't want to be a lampy after all you're still going to walk away with a computer science ticket and you'll be laughing. This is still true even if you end up working successfully as a lampy for years, you'll always have something else to fall back on. (oh no, I'm beginning to sound like my mum!)

 

If, however, you hate computer science and really don't want to do it then you need to think pretty hard about what to do. As Gareth says, you should be able to find a relevant course near you, but then, as Tomo says, they may want to see evidence of some prior experience.

 

Well that's how I see it anyway. I'm speaking as someone who dropped out of university to come and do this, with only one year of my course left and very little experience in lighting. I have only recently gone back to college part-time to start gaining some qualifications, and it makes me a lot more comfortable knowing I've got them, believe me. My mum was right you know :) Good luck.

[Pete McCrea]

I'd echo what the others posted. Stick the computer course out whilst getting experience as a tech with a theatre or local hire/production company. Then maybe consider the trainging options in the field such as BTECS etc.

 

I did casual bits thru my church, then ended up freelancing for the last few years while I completed a Civil Engineering Degree, and now have a job as a warehouse managaer for the company I started freelancing for all those years ago.

[Tomo]

(Poxy keyboard doesn't have a euro symbol)

CTRL-ALT-4

(This post brought to you by the symbol €, and the number 4)

[boac]

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€â‚

€ :)

woo-hoo

 

Thanks Tomo, I knew there was a shortcut to it somewhere, but could only come up with é. Should have thought of that one.

 

In order to drag this post back into 'relevant to the topic' territory, may I also suggest the possibility of doing an Electrical Installation (City and Guilds or whatever is replacing it) qualification. In my opinion, more and more employers will be looking for this sort of thing in the future and, again, if you decide against lighting there's loads of work (and potentially good money) for electricians out there.

[David Ripley]

Hi all

 

I have a dim recollection of Full Sail training being discussed on The Light Network

 

It wasn't that complimentary!

 

Try getting involved in your local amateur groups to get some experience, there are also plenty of books out there that will explain these set ups.

 

If after you've completed your course you still want to go into the business then there are plenty of UK courses that are probably more relevant than Full Sail.

 

Also what do you mean by Lighting Tech? Just operating a board?, designing?, crewing? Do you think you want to work in the Theatre?, Rock'n'Roll, Corporate Events?

 

There are a lot of areas where a 'lighting tech's' skills can be applied so think about what it is you're aiming for then look up a course.

 

Most drama schools have lighting as part of any Technical course, some are all parts of the job, others just design side. The Conference of Drama Schools website is here: CDS

 

Other courses are at LIPA and Breton Hall, for example. The ABTT website has more info under Technical Training ABTT It may be the ABTT's Bronze award which you can do in a week may suit you as a starter.

 

On the other hand if you've got any sense, stick to computers, do Am Drams as a hobby and earn some decent money!

 

Good luck!

 

David

[hetsscaryguy]

well thanks for your help so far, I am starting to see that maybe full ail isnt a great option. I would still like to study in the states though because it will probably give me a better option to stay thee in the future which at the end of the day is what I want. I live in ireland at the moment and believe me this is one country you dont want to spend your life in the government have made to many mistakes and im not hanging around to see the consequences. I am going to look into courses now other than full sail, I would like to be mainly involved in concerts for rock and other such music, although theatre also seems interesting. im going to stick to computer science for the next four years as a bachelors degree increases chances of entry to the states.

 

now thae other question I previously asked on thomann (a german retailer for those of you who dont know) they sell a dimmer pack by a company called Botex (heres the link

http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/thoiw6_bot...k_prodinfo.html ) would it just be a case of plugging the lights into this dimmer, sending a cable to the board and then have everything work. this seems really cheap and I was thinking of getting a few of these, a few pars, a board and offering my service to local bands, which there are a lot of. not sure on a board though and how many pars would be a reasonable amount for a small stage ie 30' x 15'.

 

once again thanks for the help and im going to possibly offer my services to the drama society in Trinity College next year where im studying. unfortunately the only local amatuer groups have a lampy already, hes the guy who took me on to help him at my schools musicl and since then I worked only once with him at a charity concert. I might get in touch with him next summer to see if he would give me a job for the summer with him.

 

anyway thanks for the help so far and if you could offer some advice on that possible set up I was talking about above it would be great.

[Brian]

oh and can anyone recommend a good book to explain all this for me I was looking at this one http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...g=UTF8&v=glance

 

it seems to be good.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The only trouble is that it is an american book and uses different terminology and a slightly different way of doing things. Oh, and anything in it about electrics will be wrong.

 

For an absolute beginner try Stage Lighting Step-by-Step

[Tomo]

Why not read the FAQ on this very site?

 

There's a list of good publications there.

[gareth]

Moderation, 1/9/04 20:40 ..... posts about basic lighting calculations, etc. have been split out to a new topic in the Lighting forum.

[Jivemaster]

A large part of any training establishment - which you dont realise til too late - is their connection with local industry. Where do you get your first work contacts after training!

Training in the US would be easy they will likely allow you a visa but check Bryson's Blog for his feelings about applying for a work permit and he is highly skilled and experienced and already had employment arranged. They dont like people turning up with no job and no experience trying to find work, even just overstaying a student visa. Offend their INS and you get a life ban from the US after they physically evict you.

Your first theatre job WILL come from somewhere that regards your course or training estblishment highly.

 

IT skills are highly prized, PASS the course, Learn a bit about theatre from AmDram the good ones are very good. See how much IT overlaps with theatre DMX, artnet, audio distro by ethernet.

[andy_s]

A large part of any training establishment - which you dont realise til too late - is their connection with local industry. Where do you get your first work contacts after training!

Training in the US would be easy they will likely allow you a visa but check Bryson's Blog for his feelings about applying for a work permit and he is highly skilled and experienced and already had employment arranged. They dont like people turning up with no job and no experience trying to find work, even just overstaying a student visa. Offend their INS and you get a life ban from the US after they physically evict you.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'll echo this - we sent our "award winning" production of Tom's Midnight Garden to the states to play on Broadway for 3 weeks just after 11th september - so we expected a hard time and took great care to get visa and work permit things right - in fact there was a mistake (not on our side of the pond, but not apparently a major issue) which was spotted at the time, but in the turmoil I guess, wasn't put right immediately. This has led to some of the company members having fairly stressful experiences with Immigration people in America, and the authorities in the states won't even look at the papers, let alone put the error right at this stage. They are unbending....even though it is very clear that the original error was very insignificant, and in no way an attempt to fraudulently enter the USA.

[James C]

For a bit of background, I found this article about Full Sail on the L&SI site.